Avon Has Bilingual New Look

This may sound like a stereotype, but according to consumer experts, Hispanic women spend 17 percent more on cosmetics -- and are more daring with color -- than any other group.

"We never leave the house without mascara," says Sonia Russomanno, director of marketing segmentation at Avon Products Inc.

In the past five years, the cosmetics giant has seen a 15 percent increase in its U.S. Hispanic clients. This growth is what has prompted the company to develop a bilingual catalog.

The new catalog includes the same products available to the general market, as well as specially formulated color palettes and products that do well in Avon's Latin American markets. Avon has also teamed with Latina magazine, which will include an eight-page brochure within its pages, starting with its November issue.

This isn't Avon's first attempt to target this market. The company has been printing a Spanish brochure in the United States since 1998. That brochure, however, was just a translation of the same brochure that circulated in the general market.

Now, Avon is reaching Latinas more efficiently by creating an original catalog with its own name, Eres Tu (It's You). Avon hopes that by featuring a more diverse group of models, Hispanic customers will see themselves within its pages.

Russomanno says the company is giving prominence to the products it knows Hispanics favor, such as fragrance and skin care, and is also trying to highlight the shades that work best for them.

"[In the old Spanish-language brochure] we had models that were white, with blond hair and blue eyes, promoting shades that were not appropriate for Hispanics," says Russomanno. "We thought we should use Latinas as models, so our customers feel more identified."

But being Hispanic means being black, white and every color in between, so how can a catalog promote shades specifically for a skin tone?

"I know that very well, because I'm a Latina, and I'm a blonde and have freckles," says Russomanno. "The Avon brochure has always been very diverse, and our new bilingual catalog will continue to feature a diverse group of women as models, but they'll happen to be from Hispanic backgrounds."

However, Russomanno concedes consumers will see a slant toward what's considered the average Latina look -- darker skin, hair and eyes.

Avon is not the first mass-market cosmetics company to target U.S. Hispanics. Maybelline and Revlon had also tried to sell products tailored specifically to Latinas. Both attempts were unsuccessful.

Avon, Russomanno says, has in its favor the fact that Hispanics are very brand-loyal. And Avon products have been available in Latin American countries since 1954.

"As much as Hispanics assimilate or acculturate, they also hold their traditions true," she says. "We stick to the products that we know and are comfortable with. And most Hispanics emigrate from their countries with an already established relationship with our products."

Avon is also launching a line of products that touch on the cultural differences of U.S. Hispanics.

"Faith and traditions is something that Hispanics hold very dear," says Russomanno. "They are mostly Catholic, so we are including in the catalog jewelry with crosses and other religious images like the Virgin of Guadalupe."

In the United States, Avon has more than half a million sales representatives, of which 13 percent are Hispanic. Through the partnership, Latina magazine will enlist 80,000 Avon sales representatives to sell one-year subscriptions.

The cosmetics company, founded 116 years ago by a California encyclopedia salesman who would get in the door by handing women perfume, circulates in 12 languages in 143 countries.

Magaly Morales can be reached at mmorales@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4717.